PTSD
by FrizzThinking
Summary: If you're doing the right thing, the joy doesn't come until long after you've done it. If you're in a terrible situation, the light of day may never come back. It's not like bringing down a criminal organization and fighting to be the best is going to make you spontaneously happy and cheerful. If anything, it ruins your mind. It wears down on you until you can't function anymore.


**Disclaimer: I do not own or have any association with Pokemon, Nintendo, Game Freak, or anyone who owns or has association with Pokemon.**

* * *

Volkner yawned as he stared out at the Pokémon League. To challenge or not to challenge? No good trainers had come by recently. In fact, all the trainers for the past year or so hadn't been worth his time. It had been one of those periods of time where journeying had become insanely popular, what with the new Pokédex that came out and all. It was actually kind of shocking that the number of new trainers hadn't died down much. But who knows, maybe if he waited another month then it'd return to the normal the-strong-shall-survive routine.

He jumped slightly as his phone started ringing in his pocket. Volkner shook his head at his own zoned-out attitude and pulled out his cell.

"Yes?" he asks warily.

"Hey! Volkner! Guess who it is!" Flint's familiar voice shouts over the other end.

"Gee, I wonder," Volkner drawls. "What do you want? Gym renovations start in another half hour or so and I've got errands to run."

"Oh, quit PMSing. A trainer's disappeared and Professor Rowan is concerned. He wants me and you on the search party," Flint says.

"I don't have time to search for some kid's corpse," Volkner sighs. "Besides, why would he be concerned? Hundreds go missing every year."

"It's not like… It's not like dead-in-some-forest-and-or-route dead, it's like… well… Rowan was really confusing about the entire thing. You remember Cyrus? Creepo kid from school all those years back?"

"Um, I guess," Volkner says. "The one with the watch that kept to himself?"

"Yeah! That guy! Well, he kind of did some weird stuff and started an organization. He managed to cause a shit ton of problems with the Legendaries. The trainer that went missing, this girl, she went to try and fix it. Now she's gone."

"What kind of idiot is she? Flint, she's probably dead. Cyrus was insane if my memory is working properly, and nobody can take on Legendaries. If Cyrus didn't kill her, the Legendaries did. They're both dead."

"…She's been traveling for about seven years I believe. Made excellent progress on the Pokédex and has made it in the top eight for Kanto, top sixteen for Hoenn and I guess Johto, and made it past the preliminary rounds in Unova. Volkner, she wasn't stupid. According to Rowan, she had an extremely bright future. Her name's Dawn," Flint says, voice taking on a pleading tone. "We have to at least try."

"There's other trainers who have accomplished that and more. It's hopeless. You can go if you want to, but I've got a gym to renovate," Volkner snaps and closes his phone. "Damn kids," he mumbles. "I guess I should probably go see what needs fixed before the renovations start."

* * *

Darkness. Complete darkness.

"Come on," Cynthia mutters. "This… there's something bad about this place."

_No shit, _the girl next to her thinks.

"I… The only choice is to move forward," Cynthia says, voice trembling.

The blue-eyed, blue-haired teenager silently nods her agreement. She shivered from the harsh cold surrounding them, along with the gloom that seemed to eat away at her will. There was something terribly, terribly wrong with this pitch-black world. That much was obvioius.

"Do you have a Pokémon that can provide light?" Cynthia asks quietly.

The girl nods and calls out a Flareon. "Firework, light up the area," she whispers, and the Eeveelution lets out a small cry before breathing out some flames. It was a technique similar to circular breathing they had practiced before exploring Johto's cave system which allowed the Firework, the Flareon, to continually breathe flames without ever stopping. It provided a constant source of light.

Not that it made either the trainer or Cynthia feel any better. What they saw was horrific; spikey, thorny, twisted tree-like objects filled the ground before them. If it could be called a ground, that is. It was more like a floating rock slab, dark red with numerous cracks running along it. The edge of it was barely visible at the edge of Firework's light. There was dust swirling in the air before them, black and blue like bruises. The world smells like death and decay, along with the cool crispness of snow in the middle of a freezing winter. The trainer gulps.

"Come on," Cynthia says quietly, stepping forward. She gently reaches for the trainer's hand in an attempt to provide some reassurance, but the girl flinches away. She does move though, and the pair, along with Firework, head into the forest of horrible trees.

It wasn't long before disaster struck. Firework, who had managed to scramble onto the trainer's shoulder, yelped and slid off, scratching his tail on a tree. All was dark for a few terrifying moments before he recovered and dutifully returned to lighting up the dark world.

Except there were no trees, and the only floor was beneath the trainer, Firework and Cynthia.

The former immediately panics and tries to get to her Flareon, just as a tree appeared in front of her. Cynthia shrieks and lunges towards her, pulling her away by her backpack just before she collides with the thorny column.

Firework quickly hops over to them, and nudges Dawn. The girl convulses and begins to hyperventilate as the smell of her own blood reaches her nose. Cynthia gently lays her down and tries to find the problem, but with Dawn practically sobbing, she's forced to bring out Roserade who puts her to sleep.

Five minutes later Cynthia has discovered a cut on the girl's leg, a bruise on her shoulder, and a few other minor injuries, but nothing to cause the rapidly growing stench of blood.

Cynthia clasps a hand over her mouth as she finds it.

There was a large, gaping hole in the girl's hand. Two bones had been shoved out of the hand, tearing even more skin and muscle. Two others were pushed out of place. The entire limb was completely mutated and covered in blood.

Cynthia takes numerous deep breaths and does everything she can to stop from panicking. She'd been in gruesome situations before; she could handle this.

But that didn't stop her from curling up into a ball and sobbing after wrapping everything below the trainer's elbow in bandages.

It took what seemed like days before the trainer, Dawn, woke up and joined her, weeping quietly in the blackness.

* * *

"Why didn't you follow her?" Lucas practically screams at Barry. "She… she's _gone_, and you fucking disappear for a while and we think you went too, and then you come back and say that she's just… just… _gone?_"

"I didn't disappear for a while!" Barry argues back. "I climbed down from Mt. Coronet! That, on average, takes four days! I did it in two! Sorry for not having magic fucking powers! Dawn was doing _just fine_ on her own! She took down an entire army of those Galactic bastards, and _told me_ to leave so she can handle this!"

"And you didn't think once that, oh, maybe help, as unnecessary as it is, can you know, have some value? Like, as in, prevent-people-from-disappearing-off-the-face-of-the-planet value?" Lucas snaps.

"She wanted me to go, so I went. If there's _anything_ I've learned about Dawn over the years, it's that if she doesn't want you there, then you don't stay. You don't help; you hinder. The _one time_ I broke that rule it ended up in a Pokémon dying. So you know what? I thought that maybe I'd let her handle it herself like she wanted and or needed to, and not get in the way," Barry growls. "Now Lover Boy, you didn't do a goddamned thing. You weren't even at Mt. Coronet. You have _no room_ to talk."

Lucas glares at the blonde-haired boy in front of him. "Professor Rowan said that he was unable to fly by helicopter up there, which would've been the only transportation fast enough."

"_Professor Rowan_ said that. _You_ were not there. _You_ sat in the laboratory to 'keep watch'. You know who else was there 'keeping watch'? A team of six other lab assistants," Barry points out, crossing his arms. "All of which are far more experienced at their job and watching over Pokémon."

The sound of someone clearing their throat interrupts the two, and they both turn to see a man with a red afro looking mildly uncomfortable. Behind him was a sulky blonde guy who seemed to be staring at his watch.

"You two done arguing?" the blonde asks. "Because I seriously don't have time for this. It's bad enough I got dragged here, and I don't want to have to put up with you two bickering at each other. Let's just find the body so I can get home."

The afro man shoots a dark look at his companion before turning his attention back to the two now-blushing teenagers.

"Um, yeah. Sorry about him. He constantly complains about everything being ordinary and normal and easy and stupid, and then whines about having to do something challenging. Just give him some time to get going. I'm Flint and that's Volkner. I take it you two are Barry and Lucas?" he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

"…Yes," Lucas says. "Are… are you two part of the search party for Dawn?"

"Yeah. We were told we'd be working with you two. You because you have a Pokédex and information on some stuff that happened, and Barry because he apparently knows Dawn and was the last person to see her."

"Seems to be right," Barry says, trying to find out a way to kill both Volkner and Lucas by boring holes of hate into them with his eyes.

"Then let's get down to business," Flint says, walking over to a couch. He flops down and looks around. "Kind of nice that Rowan's lab has just a couple rooms completely dedicated to relaxing, you know? Perfect temperature compared to the rest of this frozen hell of the south."

Volkner follows him, taking the other spot on the couch, leaving the loveseat for Lucas and Barry. The latter stands, refusing to go any closer to Lucas than necessary.

"So, what exactly happened?" Volkner asks, uninterested. "In more detail than a girl went after Cyrus and then poof, she's gone."

"Well, Cyrus created an evil organization known as Team Galactic, whose goal was to create a new universe. In order to do so, he captured the legendary lake Pokémon, Uxie, Azelf and Mespirit, and created a Red Chain. Then he created a replica. Using the chains, he pulled Dialga and Palkia, the time and space rulers, to Spear Pillar. Or at least that was the idea," Lucas says. "I don't know what actually happened."

Barry snorts. "I'm not a hundred percent sure either, but basically, he was doing that when I showed up. Dawn and I kicked some ass, she made me leave, I start heading down Mt. Coronet. Everything starts becoming distorted, and I run into Cynthia. She doesn't spare me a second glance and then pulls out that big-ass Garchomp to move even faster. There's this huge roar, and then everything is completely silent for a while. I stay still for a while, but everything just keeps… I don't know, distorting. It's like the walls are warped and time isn't flowing right and just… weird. I get the hell out of the mountain and then run into Lover Boy here, who gets pissed at me. Bam, here we are now."

"Cynthia?" Flint asks. "She was there too?"

"Yeah. Champion girl, insanely long blonde hair, emo clothes. That one," Barry says.

"Shit," Flint swears. Volkner just heaves a sigh as the fiery man starts checking his pockets for something.

"Here," Volkner says after a moment, and shoves a cell phone into his hands.

Flint shakes as he punches in the numbers.

"…It's not working. She's gone. Shit. Shit. Shit."

"Well, this is now officially sort of worth my time," Volkner says with mock cheer. "Now, Spear Pillar? I think we can go there and see what's going on. It's on top of Mt. Coronet, right?"

"I don't think that'd be possible," Lucas says, shaking his head.

"Why? If we can't fly, climbing isn't too difficult either," Volkner says.

"Look out the window dumbass," Barry mutters under his breath.

Volkner huffs slightly hearing this, but gets up and opens the blinds to the closest window. He gasps slightly once he focuses in on Mt. Coronet. It wasn't something huge and highly noticeable, but it was obviously there. A huge crackling, purple portal engulfed the top of the mountain, making the area around it shimmer.

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Flint asks, and Volkner shivers slightly when he realizes his best friend had gotten up right behind him.

"Hell if I know," Barry says, throwing his arms up in frustration. "We can't go up there, that's for certain."

"Why, is it _too dangerous_?" Lucas sneers.

"Hell yes," Barry snaps, rolling his eyes. "We're supposed to rescue her, not kill ourselves. I thought you were supposed to be the smart one in this, too."

Flint spins around. "Enough. Both of you. There's no point in arguing now. Is there any Team Galactic base or area remaining that we can go get more information from?"

"Nope. Dawn wiped out all of them," Barry says.

"Hey! I helped," Lucas interrupts.

"They stole your Pokédex so you helped Dawn fight a few grunts to get it back. That's not help," Barry points out. "I tried to fend off a commander at Lake Acuity, and then kicked her ass with Dawn at Spear Pillar."

"_Stop_," Flint orders. "Bickering does not get us any closer to finding Dawn and Cynthia. Now, is there anywhere, _anywhere_ we can go that has someone who knows something about all of this?"

"Cynthia's grandmother," Volkner says. "She's the head in mythology in Sinnoh, moron. Remember?"

"…Oh. Right," Flint says, rubbing the back of his neck with a slightly sheepish look on his face. "I… we saw her a few days ago, didn't we? For one of her lectures?"

"Yes," Volkner sighs.

* * *

In the land of darkness, Cynthia and Dawn were continuing their journey.

"Here, let's try something else to ease the pain," Cynthia says, calling out a Milotic. Dawn's haggard breathing and occasional whimper indicated that the pain pills and potions weren't doing much for the ache in her mutated hand. "I'd say amputate it, but I don't think that'll help the pain any. It's just going to have to stay like that, okay? This should at least numb it. Milotic, Ice Beam on her hand. I just want it frozen, not completely destroyed."

"Milooo," the serpent replied before gently blowing ice onto Dawn's bandaged arm. The girl flinches and shrieks slightly at the cold, but relaxes moments later.

"Thank you," she says as Cynthia calls back her Pokémon. Firework, who was standing next to her, nods in appreciation too, not breaking his steady stream of fire.

"You're welcome. Anything to try and help us not break down in this hellhole," the blonde says. "Anyways, I have a new theory on where we are. This place, I think, is a counterweight. It balances the other world, where we live. Here it doesn't seem as if time is really doing anything, and space isn't stable. There's no life. It keeps the other world full of life and love, with steady time and space. I think Giratina lives here alone."

"…So how does that help us get out, though?" Dawn asks.

Cynthia shrugs. "If we can find Giratina, and express our need to leave, then Giratina should help us. It was just extremely angered with Cyrus, and because our main goal was to stop him, then it should be fine with bringing us back home."

"And if Giratina doesn't?" Dawn asks.

"…I don't know. I guess we're trapped here forever unless we find a way back to Spear Pillar," Cynthia sighs. "But let's not think of it like that."

Dawn falls quiet for a while, and they see that the edge of the forest is near. Cynthia and Firework subconsciously move closer to Dawn in case it truly isn't the end and more trees are going to appear out of nowhere.

"I think I'd rather be killed," Dawn says after some time.

"What?" Cynthia asks, startled. "You want to die?"

"Not necessarily. It just sounds like a better option than being stuck here forever," Dawn explains absentmindedly. "If Giratina doesn't take us back, I don't want to live forever, wandering these Arceus-awful forests and missing home. I'd rather just be dead and deal with whatever happens in the afterlife, if there is one, you know?"

"I suppose," Cynthia says, thinking it through. "But on the other hand, I think it'd be best to keep searching. Suicide is like giving up. I'd rather…" she trails off, and they exit the forest. Firework gets as close as he can to the two girls without knocking them over or tripping them, glaring at the world around them. "I'd rather hold onto hope. It's a good feeling, one that rarely leaves. I'd rather hope to find an exit than just say 'I'm done with this, give me the gun' and die. It's like lost opportunity. By killing yourself, you're ridding yourself of all chances of going back home, and of hope. Oh-holy Dialga, what's… what the hell?"

Firework increases the flame, providing a better view of everything. The three lake guardians were standing in front of them, eyes glowing.

"Kyun!" Mespirit cries, turning around and floating over to a stone. Uxie and Azelf follow, gesturing with their tails for the small group to follow.

"…Should we trust them?" Dawn whispers uneasily.

"Well, it's that or continue wandering around completely lost," Cynthia whispers back, heading forward. Dawn gulps and follows, with Firework at her heels.

"Azelf," Azelf says quietly, tapping Dawn gently on the forehead. "Kyu."

Dawn immediately freezes in an attempt to not panic and jump off the edge of the stone, which a few moments later lurches forward. She shrieks as she notices Cynthia topple and quickly grabs the champion's hand and pulls her upright.

"Thanks," Cynthia mutters, dusting herself off.

Dawn shrugs. "Don't do it again. It sucks being here at all; it'd be absolutely horrifying to be here with no human company."

With that, the two of them watch their surroundings. Sideways waterfalls floated nearby, along with chunks of rock covered in jagged vines. There weren't actually a whole lot of large, stable rocks; most were small and had either nothing or a single, small black plant. There were some chunks of ice, too,along with a single floating tree. It was all unnerving to see.

"Kyun," Uxie alerts and the rock abruptly stops. Dawn shrieks, losing her balance, and knocks over Cynthia as she falls, and the Champion screams as she topples off the edge of the rock.

Dawn hits the ground with a thud, landing on her right arm-the one with the mutated hand. Her screams mingle with Cynthia's, and the cold blackness of the awful world seems to seep in even more.

"KYUUUUN!" Mespirit shouts before disappearing, and moments later she reappears with Cynthia, whose skin was bright red. Dawn is roughly pulled to her feet with psychic power, and the pain in her arm and hand vanishes. "Mespirit, mess," Mespirit says gently. "Kyun-mess."

Dawn shivers and attempts to stabilize her breathing before looking at Cynthia. The older woman's skin looked as if it had been burned.

"Cynthia?" she says quietly. "…Are you okay?"

The champion takes a while to calm down before she can answer. "There's-not too far down, there's a pool of boiling hot water. It has ice floating in it though. Freezing cold ice."

Dawn blinks before nodding. "I-okay. Let's get going."

Firework nudges her comfortingly as they turn to the lake guardians, who nod and lead them away.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Okay, personally, I'm not very happy with how this turned out, but I don't know what to change. But, it gets the point across, and there's a lot more to this story that I'm more excited about writing, so it'll stay like this for a while. If I complete this story or if I'm bored I might completely rewrite it. Please review and let me know what you think of it, just to give me an idea of what's probably the parts here that need the most work.**

**Oh, and the entire story hasn't been worked out yet. Yeah, there's going to be romance. I don't want to make it the main focus though, but it's going to play a decent role in the story. Just enough to bug you if you hate romance, and just little enough to bug you if that's what you like to see in a story. Or at least that's what I plan on it being. Arceus knows I rarely follow my plans.**

**OH! And the Dawn you see here isn't going to be like the Dawn you see in the games or in the Anime. She and her team are based off of me and my team, and so don't expect her to be the peppy, No Need to Worry! girl you know and love/hate. She's just named Dawn because I didn't know what else to name her._  
_**

**Anyways, yeah. First post on ! Yay!**


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